


The View Finder

by Akoia



Series: Magic and Masks [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Children, Batfamily (DCU), Crime Fighting, Gotham City - Freeform, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22886650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akoia/pseuds/Akoia
Summary: Ten-year-old Tim Drake knows three things for sure. One, his parents spend most of the time out of the country to avoid each other. Two, Harry Potter was the coolest person ever. And Three, Bruce Wayne was Batman
Series: Magic and Masks [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1184681
Comments: 14
Kudos: 311
Collections: DC Universe Fanfic Must Reads, Harry Potter Fanfic Must Reads





	The View Finder

Tim stood between his parents, trying not to fidget with his tie. Neither Jannet or Jackson Drake would look at each other. Jannet had a tall glass of champagne in her hand and waved over a friend. She split away from Tim and Jackson, her heels clicking on the marble floors of the Wayne family's large reception room. Tim didn't even have to look up to know that Jackson ditched him the second the opportunity presented itself. But that was fine, Tim was on a mission. 

Bruce Wayne was chatting with the Mayor. Tim-and most of Gotham-were amazed that Mister Wayne was able to pick himself up after the death of his son Jason just the year before. He wasn't... _happy,_ but he was surviving, as was the rest of the Wayne family. He was showing off the youngest of the bunch to the mayor. Harry Potter was an orphan Mister Wayne had adopted from England two years previously. The eleven-year-old boy was going off to a boarding school his birth parents had attended. Dick Grayson had also made an appearance at some point, his date was Barbra Gordan, and the two of them were tucked away in a corner with glasses of wine.

If Tim was correct, then the Wayne family were all hiding little secrets. Nightwing, for example, had been making headlines in Bludhaven for four years, around the same time that Richard Grayson had moved there and become a police officer. Robin had disappeared after Jason Todd had passed away. And Batman had become more brutal since Robin disappeared. Like a father who lost his son. But then there were rumors-in circles that Tim's parents could _never_ know he knew about-that Batman had a new protege who had yet to make a debut on the rough streets of Gotham's nightlife. _The Sparrow_. But Tim knew that Batman needed a Robin, a partner, anyone to keep him from fizzling out. 

Tim had a tiny camera in his pocket, just in case. He'd been following Batman around at night, taking pictures of him. Because _he_ wanted to be the Robin that helped him. Tim was determined, he just wasn't really sure how to bring the topic up. So he stayed along the edges of the party, watching Mister Wayne, only occasionally taking his eyes off the man to greet old women who wanted to pinch his cheeks. Toward the end of the night, his watching caused him to bump into someone only slightly taller than he was.

"Oh, I'm sorry," a soft, British voice said. Tim looked up and found the green eyes of Harry Potter looking at him. "Are you alright?" He asked. 

Tim straightened up, his heart hammering in his chest. "Yes, I'm alright," he said. Harry was only a year older than him. They went to the same school, though Harry and he had never had a conversation. 

Harry sized him up for a minute before a smile stretched over his face. "This is a pretty boring party, do you want to come to the backyard? We could go out and maybe play a round of basketball." 

"Yes!" Tim said. 

Harry led him out back, away from the party-goers. Tim was _so_ impressed by Harry managing to dodge people who wanted his attention and yet leaving the person in question feeling like they had gotten exactly what they wanted. Harry loosened his tie and threw his jacket onto the back of a chair, before grabbing a ball and bouncing it on the ground toward Tim. Tim set up his shot and missed, but Harry grabbed the ball and threw it back to him. 

"So, where are your parents?" Harry asked, throwing the ball and sinking it. 

"They're around. Just talking to friends and stuff," Tim said. 

"Oh," Harry said. He was quiet for another second, still managing to score. "I noticed that you were watching Bruce, you can just go up and talk to him, you know." 

"Ah! Wait, I wasn't _watching_ him."

"No, you were observing him." Harry put the ball under his arm and leveled Tim with a fairly startling look. His eyes were cold as ice. "Why?" He asked. 

"I guess I just think he's impressive," Tim said with a shrug. 

"And the camera, you brought with you? You've been taking pictures all night. Are you planning to send them to the press?" 

"No, of course not!" Tim defended. "I'd never do something like that!" 

"So your pictures were just for your _private_ collection, then?" Harry asked, tilting his head to the side. Tim opened and closed his mouth a few times, but Harry didn't give him a chance to answer. "I know," he said. "That you've been following Bruce around at night. I know you hacked our com link. And I know that you've been observing us all for months now. But I want to know _why."_

Tim blinked at the older boy and took a step back. "I wasn't going to expose you or anything. I didn't want to hurt you guys." 

Harry's eyes seemed to soften and he sighed. "No, I didn't think you were trying to have us killed. That's not what...listen I would have told Bruce if I thought that was what you were doing. So just _tell me_ what you were doing."

Tim shuffled around and pulled his camera out, and pressed the buttons until he got a picture of him at a very young age posing with Dick Grayson and his parents. The same night that John and Mary Grayson plummeted to their deaths. "I've always kind of kept up with how he was doing," Tim said, handing the camera over. "Then I noticed that Robin appeared right after Mister Wayne. And well I figured that if Dick Grayson was Robin, then Mister Wayne must be Batman. And I just...kept watching." He cleared his throat and shifted from foot to foot nervously. 

Harry's thumb traced over the picture. "Do you have a copy of any of the pictures you took? Any _hard_ copies?" He asked.

"Um, yes," Tim said. "I have a wall." 

"A wall?" Harry raised an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, with theories and connections." 

Harry scoffed a smile on his face and shook his head. "And Bruce had no idea," he chuckled. He looked back at Tim. "What do you want out of all this?" He asked. "Is there a goal in all of this or is this just a weird hobby?"

Tim wondered if he had to guts to tell him he wanted to be Robin. The worst that would happen was Harry would get mad, or tell him no. But it would happen if he told Harry now or later. "I know what happened to Robin," he said and felt guilty when he saw the small flinch on Harry's face. "And I know that Batman is running himself into the ground. I can't imagine what kind of pain he's in, but I do know that Batman needs a Robin. And I wanted that Robin to be me." 

Harry and Tim stared at each other for a solid twenty-one seconds (Tim counted) before Harry reacted to that. "Were you planning to...blackmail him?" He asked, but from his tone of voice, Tim could tell that he didn't believe that was the case. 

"No! Never, I just...well maybe I thought that it would prove to him that I had what it takes." 

"Well, it does show you're rather resourceful," he muttered under his breath. "And when I go away to school, no one will be there to make sure he doesn't get himself killed...hmm." He rubbed his chin. "I'll talk to him," he said finally, throwing the camera back to Tim. "It won't be easy. A lot of physical training." 

* * *

Three weeks later, Harry made a house call to the Drake household. His mother was in China and his father was in England, so they had the whole house to themselves. Tim even got to show Harry his wall. 

"That's so unsettling," Harry said, tracing a red thread between a newspaper article and a picture of Barbra Gordan. "But good work. Most people didn't catch the connection." He looked over his shoulder at Tim and smiled. "So, I talked to Bruce," he said. He chuckled when he saw Tim stand up straighter. "He was...reluctant. But I brought him around." 

"What...what did you say to him?" Tim asked. 

Harry smirked and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Point is, he's agreed to take you under his wing. By next year, the two of us will be hitting the streets. But there is... _one_ thing."

"Oh?" Tim asked, feeling nervous. And _excited._

"Robin. The last person who held that name died. He was the only one with _any_ right to hand down that mantle. That's why I took the name I did. So you'll have to think of a different name. And design your costume, but that the fun part, I promise." 

Harry rested a hand on Tim's shoulder. "Be at the manor, seven in the morning, _sharp._ And you'll start your training. Bring comfortable clothes and a water bottle. Expect to work hard." 

"Right! I won't let you down!" Tim said, balling his hands at his side. 

Harry smiled at him, for the first time it reached his eyes, and he winked at Tim. "Don't worry, I know you won't." 

* * *

Harry stood by Bruce's side, his cape billowing around him from the rooftop of some large corporate building. His domino mask conformed perfectly to his face and he put his hands on his hips, grinning stupidly at the night sky. "Well, let's go, B," He said. He took a running leap off the edge, and fell toward the ground, but shooting the wires from his belt toward another building, pulling himself up, and swinging from one ledge to another. It really did feel like flying. 

He landed above the warehouse and crouched in the shadows. Sparrow pressed his fingers to the com on his ear. "I have visuals on the Joker," he whispered. "He has seven men with him. It looks like they're meeting with Two-Face." 

" _Good work, Sparrow,"_ Batman said. " _I'm heading in, don't rush this, Sparrow. Fight smart."_

"You've got it," he said with a grin. He readied his weapons in both hands and kept crouched to the ground. Nothing lethal, just two electrified gloves that packed a powerful punch. His boots also worked the same. 

He watched with wide eyes as Batman emerged from the darkness and threw a large man into the storage container that Harry had jumped down too. He looked closer at the Joker, and anger swelled in his chest. That was the man that had taken Jason from him. So Harry took another running leap and smashed the heel of his boot into the Joker's face, sending him stumbling, but not taking him out. 

Harry stood back with wide eyes. The shock should have been enough to take him down for a while. But he brushed it off like it was almost nothing. He held a cane in one hand and leaned on it, sizing Harry up. "My god, are you on PCP?" Harry asked, taking a step back. 

The Joker cackled wickedly and closed one eye. "Another boy blunder walks my stage, what a shame I've got to pluck your feathers, little birdy." 

Harry sighed. "Can we just fight, already?" He asked. 

"Sure!" The man said, lifting his hand and snapping. All of Joker's remaining men turned to Harry, and everything turned into a flurry of fists and bats and guns. Most fights weren't long and drawn out. Usually lasting at most thirty seconds, but Harry had to avoid every blow that came at him and was starting to get tired. 

He managed to knock three of them out before one got the drop on him, swinging a baseball bat into his back, and throwing him on the ground. Harry dodged a blow that would have shattered his skull and brought a high powered kick right to the man's groin and shot 50,000 volts into his body. 

When the man fell Harry jumped to his feet, grabbed the bat that had been dropped, and made a B line for the Joker who seemed surprised and excited at the same time. He blocked Harry's swing with his cane and kicked him in the stomach. It was shockingly hard, for how slight the man looked, but Harry had spent months being knocked around by Bruce and Dick, he could deal with this. 

The Joker swung again, and Harry grabbed his cane, threw it. He jumped in the air, spun around, and kicked the Joker in the face. This time, he did falter, but not enough to give Harry the edge. He pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket, and Harry jumped out of the way right as it fired, flipping backward and landing in a crouch. "The last boy blunder was so much easier to catch," The Joker said. "Just a few whacks with a crowbar was all it took to get _him_ to sit still." 

Harry growled and rushed at the man, dodging two more bullets and headbutting him in the stomach, and punching him in the face. But Batman swooped in before Harry could continue to beat him. He threw the Joker against a wall and kicked him several times in the stomach. He tied all the criminals up and had Harry help him drag them to a light post, and hung them all upsidedown. 

Bruce pressed his hand to his ear. "Missions successful," he said. 

_"Hear you loud and clear, Batman,"_ Tim said. There was tapping over the comlink. " _I've just alerted the GCPD to your location, they'll be there in five minutes."_

Bruce said nothing, taking his hand away. He walked over to Harry and ruffled his hair. Not saying a word, the two returned to the Batmobile and strapped in for the night. They even went to a drive-through on the way home, at Harry's continued insistence, just to shock the underpaid teenager working the lines. 

All in all, it had been a good night, but Harry's heart still beat irregularly. "Bruce...you never told me what happened to Jason," he said when they were almost home. "What _really_ happened."

Bruce was quiet. He didn't look at Harry, focused on the road ahead. "I told you he was murdered and who did it. You don't need to know more." 

"Bruce, I found out from _The Joker_ that he beat Jason with a crowbar before he killed him," Harry said. "Not from you, from _him."_

Bruce sighed, long and hard. "He...lured Jason in, and he got him alone in a warehouse. He drugged and beat him. He...broke his legs so he couldn't run away. He set an explosive up and locked Jason in. It was the falling debris that killed him. That's...that's how Jason died." 

Harry nodded solemnly. He'd known that Jason suffered, and honestly, it was driving him crazy, not knowing how much. His mind had played out all sorts of awful scenarios. And it was upsetting that he hadn't been far off. "You know what," Harry said. "I think Tim will be good for you." 

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked. 

"He'll keep you distracted, so you don't run yourself dead in the ground." 

Bruce grunted and rolled his eyes. 

"Take care of Alfred too, yeah?" Harry looked at him, taking off his mask. "And Tim. His parents leave him home alone way longer than should be legal." 

"I will," he promised. 

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so after this one, we'll be moving on to Harry's first year at Hogwarts!  
> So just so everyone knows, Harry's time at Hogwarts will be very different from how it was in the books.   
> Harry is going to be in Slytherin, but he's not going to be friends with Draco or his cronies. He's not going to be a Death Eater sympathizer, and he won't become Snape's apprentice or anything like that. He'll make friends with other people in Slytherin, but is still probably going to be friends with Ron and Hermione. (Because I love them).   
> I just think it'd be really interesting to examine the life of THIS version of Harry Potter in Slytherin.


End file.
